


Secreted Chemical Factors

by valantha



Series: Pheromones [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Academy Era, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, First Meetings, Gen, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Queen/Worker/Drone Dynamics, except not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-23
Updated: 2014-08-23
Packaged: 2018-02-14 09:47:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2187093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valantha/pseuds/valantha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She smelled of hot solder, mint-condition books with fresh printer’s ink, and crushed tomato leaves. Comforting, familiar, and slightly invigorating. A scent he could get used to. Not floral or sickeningly sweet, but encouraging.</p>
<p>He smelled like Dithiothreitol, tea, and faintly of woodsmoke. Genial, cozy, and warm. A scent she could get used to. Not overpowering or teasing, but sustaining.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secreted Chemical Factors

When Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons first met, they greeted one another with the formal outstretched arms head-bob of a worker-to-worker meeting.

Even if they hadn’t heard loads about the other through the Academy grape vine, their castes were clear.

Leo Fitz had the secondary arms and lack of broad shoulders and defined musculature of a male worker, and while Simmons’ secondary sexual characteristics were less blindingly obvious, it was still clear she was a female worker. Simmons’ restrained and reticent body language made that clear. Additionally, Leo could not discern the small lumps of tertiary arms.

Carefully, cautiously, they scented one another. Modern hive-less society was made possible by a layered system of scent-suppressants, pheromone-blockers, and social mores. Jemma knew – thought it was not at all common knowledge – that 100% effective pheromone-blockers did exist, but subjects felt blind, deaf, without their pheromone cues. So instead, an optimal balance of chemicals and mores was achieved so a Queen could have a bad day and still walk along the sidewalk without gathering a swarm of helpers, but true friends could tell, and come to her aid.

Simmons smelled of hot solder, mint-condition books with fresh printer’s ink, and crushed tomato leaves. Comforting, familiar, and slightly invigorating. A scent he could get used to. Not floral or sickeningly sweet, but encouraging.

Fitz smelled like Dithiothreitol, tea, and faintly of woodsmoke. Genial, cozy, and warm. A scent she could get used to. Not overpowering or teasing, but sustaining.

Customs upheld, they bobbed their heads once more before dropping their arms – and ignoring the other’s odors – and began quizzing the other about their research.

Fitz was fascinated by Simmons’ benign attempts at replicating The Red Room’s caste-bending pharmacologies.

Simmons was fascinated by Fitz’ quadcopter prototypes and his explanations into the hows and whys of its aerodynamics.

An outside observer would be simply shocked to learn of the length of their acquaintance given their body language – and vulgarly, their smells.

By the end of the first evening of their acquaintance they had covered the breadth and depth of three different academic disciplines and had _even_ brushed palms of their secondary arms during the course of the conversation.

It was rare for workers to form attachments so quickly – life-long worker-Queen attachments could be formed in just a few hours – but Fitzsimmons were the exception to the rules. _Clearly_.


End file.
